I really resonated with this article. As the single industrial designer/product development person who also does a lot of graphic design, marketing etc... this was something that really drives home what I have been saying to management for a few years now.

We do occasionally fall for fallacy 1: High utilization of resources will improve performance. The question is "Why is this taking so long?" or "Why hasn't this launched?"

But then we remind ourselves that shit happens. Currently, I have an ugly static discharge issue that came out of nowhere. Not good in an oxygen-rich OR.

Our NPD marketing team usually calls me out on it too. I give them the "Scotty" timing and when the technical team beats it, instead of "Great, you are ahead of schedule.", I get, "Why didn't you give me the 'real' timing?".

Great article, I've just sent it to the owners of the company I work for

I'm the first designer they've had in-house, as well as the lone person covering most bases of development, graphics etc. The owners/managers are now quite good at avoiding most of these fallacies, but initially we got caught a number of times, particularly regarding project timeframes and the high variability of the development process.

They make great points on doing fast iterations and having shared objective resulting from a thorough understanding and definition of people's needs. It is very much in line with the 'lean' approach to everything. Even a piece of cardboard constructed in 2 minutes can be a prototype to test or communicate a principle and learn more about it. And even an empty whiteboard sheet on the wall, meant to create an overview of the project, can be the start of something great.